Governor Olusegun Mimiko: attacks Rivers tribunal

Dr Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo State  has described  the judgment of the Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal which nullified the victory of Governor Nyesom Wike, as hasty and an ’embarrassment’.

The tribunal sitting in Abuja on Saturday sacked the Rivers State Governor of the PDP and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct fresh election in the state in the next three months.

Mimiko, who is also the Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governor’s Forum faulted the three-man tribunal on the grounds that its judgment was too hasty as it came less than 48 hours after  both parties submitted their written addresses.

He added that the tribunal did not wait for the judgment of the Supreme Court over the issue of its jurisdiction before passing the judgment.

“Our mindset is that tribunal judgment can go either way, but the Rivers own is particularly embarrassing. We all know the circumstances surrounding the Rivers State tribunal. You recall now that for unjustifiable course that tribunal was not allowed to sit in Port Harcourt, it was taken to Abuja, and somewhere along the line the chairman of the Tribunal got changed,”, Mimiko, himself a beneficiary of a court  ruling six years ago, said.

The Federal Appeal court had helped to sack the government of his predecessor, late Olusegun Agagu, on allegations of vote rigging, in the 2007 elections. He became governor in 2009.